Avenue of the Giants and some Campground Karma

Monday, May 21, 2012 - Day 5

Today we road one of my favorite stretches of the tour -- Avenue of the Giants.  We planned a short day of 43 miles and headed out of Richardson Grove State Park onto Hwy 101. It had a nice shoulder and there were some rollers but no major climbs like the day before.  Our total for the trip after today was 324 miles.

I can't think of a more perfect way to see the Redwoods in mass than by touring through the Avenue of the Giants by bicycle.  I could barely keep a straight line because I kept looking up at the massive trees while I was riding.  The Redwood's technical name is Sequoia sempervirens and it is one of the tallest trees in the world getting to heights of 379 feet and 26 feet in diameter.  And no,those numbers are not typos.  These trees are spectacular and I have never seen anything like them before.

We turned off the Avenue of the Giants and took Mattole road into Humbolt Redwoods State Park.  We camped at Albee Creek campground.  James and I both agreed it was one of our favorite places.  It was definitely off the beaten path and the park rangers were really nice.  There wasn't anyone in the park when we arrived and so they let us stay in the regular camping area at the hike/bike rate.  The facilities at Albee Creek were excellent and I would highly recommend staying there.  The bathrooms/showers were all tile, plenty of room, and they had really hot showers.  $1 would buy 10 minutes of wonderful hot water.


  


















James and I took advantage of the fact we had a short day to go on a hike and I must say that it ranks as one of my all time favorite hikes that I've ever done.  We hiked a trail that took us the "Tall Tree" and the "Giant Tree" and "Flat Iron Tree".  The ground was covered with Redwood Sorrel which looked like clover to me.  With the enormous trees I felt like I was a character in Alice in Wonderland wondering through a magical forest. I kept expecting a little gnome or elf to pop out and start talking to us.

 As I discussed earlier, some Redwoods will become hollow and will form a room inside.  Some are big enough that a person could live in the tree.  The trail we hiked was well built, curvy, smooth and followed the contours of the land.  James and I both were dreaming of riding our mountain bikes on this trail someday.

We arrived back to the campground from our hike to some campers who were blaring their music from their vehicles so loud that it disturbed the entire campground.  The rangers said they couldn't do anything about it until quiet hours went into effect.  It saddened me -- those campers were in one of the most beautiful forests and set up their camp by a creek that had water flowing and making a beautiful relaxing sound.  But they overpowered nature's music with the modern pop crap.  It baffles me that people would go to so much effort to get away from it all and go into the woods only to blare loud, horrible music.

We went back to the campground and made some dinner of quinoa, with sauteed onions, spinach, zucchini, and flaked salmon with pesto.  While it was tasty I learned that I can't have that much quinoa and expect to ride comfortably after it hits my small intestine--too much soluble fiber.

Campground Karma...
A little karma happened the next morning, hehe.  James ran into the camp host while he was washing the morning's dishes and the camp host said that the campers who were blaring their music the night before couldn't get their car started because their battery had died.  They asked her if she had cables to jump the battery and so she messed with them.  She asked if they had top or side cables, they said top.  She told them her cables were side.  Sweet.